Property owners who rent their house or apartment independently may see some relief, thanks to a bill that would exempt them from taxes meant to level the playing field for New Jersey hospitality professionals in the age of Airbnb.

The bill would amend a law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy last year that extended a pair of taxes totaling 11.625 percent to short-term rentals by homeowners using online marketplaces like Airbnb or VRBO and even by people who rent their home through old-fashioned classified ads, fliers, word of mouth, or under long-standing relationships with repeat clients.

The bill, S-3158, has been approved by the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee and awaits a hearing before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee before heading for a full vote. An Assembly companion bill, A-4814, is scheduled for a vote of the full Assembly on Thursday, after having been approved by the lower chamber’s appropriations committee on Monday.

Previously, only hotels and motels paid the two taxes — the 6.625% state sales and use tax, and the 5% hotel occupancy fee — and were suffering from what some said was unfair competition from online marketplace users who have virtually no overhead expenses and go largely unregulated.

Properties rented through licensed real estate brokers were exempted from the taxes, in a “carve-out” intended to offset the fees those owners pay to brokers who have long played a role in the real estate and tourism sectors of the state economy.

But critics of the law say extending the taxes ensnared property owners who were never meant to be targeted, that is, property owners who are only casual landlords renting their homes to offset property tax, mortgage payments, upkeep and other costs of homes they own in order to enjoy and not as their principal businesses.

Under the new bill to amend the law, those kinds of property owners, who do not use an marketplace like AirBnB would be exempt from the combined tax.

“The law was originally intended to tax major commercial companies such as Airbnb, but it ended up hurting small, private renters all along the shore," a sponsor of the bill, state Sen. Bob Andrzejczak (D-District 1), said in a statement.

“Folks that have been renting their shore house to their friends and family aren’t doing it to make a fortune but more to offset the cost of home ownership," added Andrzejczak, whose district includes parts of Atlantic and Cape May counties.

Jill Kellett is one of those people. Kellett lives year-round in Denville, but she owns a modest house in Cape May that she rents for much of the summer while not using it herself.

Kellett rents her Cape Cod-style house for between $1,000 and $1,375 a week depending on the dates, and she likes the idea of providing what would qualify as affordable vacation housing in the popular Victorian beach resort at Exit 0 of the Garden State Parkway. So she decided to split the cost of the tax hike with her renters.

Even so, it meant she was still looking at a cut of nearly 6% in her rental income under the law as it stands. Kellett said using a real estate agent in order to avoid the tax was not an option for a couple of reasons: she would have to pay a 12% brokerage fee, which would immediately erase any savings; and she could lose the repeat renters she knows and likes. So Kellet applauded the new bill.

“It definitely will assist us in keeping clients from the past,” she said of renters who might be priced out of her market if the tax remains in place. It also doesn’t hurt that the money that would have gone toward paying the tax would now go into her pocket. “And into my renters’ pockets,” she said.

Jill Kellett said she told summer renters she would split taxes totaling 11.625% on her Cape Cod-style house in Cape May, if she is not exempted from the taxes.Jill Kellett

NOTE: This story was updated to reflect Monday’s approval of the bill by the Assembly Appropriations Committee and its schedule for a vote by the full Assembly on Thursday.